Paperboard dispensers are used to dispense multiple individual items, such as confectionery products (e.g., hard candy, gum, etc.), bulk products, or other dispensable items. Initially, the dispenser is filled with the individual items, closed, and transported to a store. At the store, the closed dispenser is opened and is typically placed on a store shelf or at the check-out counter so that customers may access and purchase one or more of the individual items contained therein. Alternatively, customers may purchase the closed dispenser with its contents so that it can be opened and accessed at home or elsewhere.
One type of prior art paperboard dispenser, shown in FIGS. 1-3, includes an outer container 10 having opposing front and back walls 12, 14, a pair of opposing side walls 16, 18, and opposing top and bottom walls 20, 22. The front wall 12 includes an upper portion 24 and a lower portion 26. Access to the individual items within the container 10 is provided by a drawer 28, whose hidden portions are shown by dotted lines in FIGS. 1-2. The drawer 28 has a rectangular front section 30 and a pair of opposing ears 32, 34 hingedly connected to respective opposing vertical edges of the front section 30 (FIG. 2). The inner surface of the lower portion 26 of the container front wall 12 is attached to the outer surface of the front section 30 of the drawer 28. The opposing ears 32, 34 of the drawer 28 extend into the interior of the outer container 10 adjacent the respective opposing side walls 16, 18 thereof.
Prior to initially opening the drawer 28, the drawer 28 is maintained in a closed position by means of perforations 36 between opposing vertical edges of the lower portion 26 of the container front wall 12 and respective adjacent vertical edges of the side walls 16, 18 and perforations 38 between an upper horizontal edge of the lower portion 26 and an adjacent lower edge of the upper portion 24 of the front wall 12. To open the drawer 28, these perforations 36, 38 are broken by punching out a punch tab 40 and pulling the lower front wall portion 26 and the drawer front section 30 outward relative to the remainder of the front wall 12. To permit the lower front wall portion 26 and the drawer front section 30 to hingedly move outward relative to the remainder of the front wall 12, the lower front wall portion 26 and the drawer front section 30 are provided with respective lower horizontal scores 42, 44 which are aligned with each other. As the drawer 28 hingedly moves about the lower horizontal scores 42, 44 to an open position, the opposing ears 32, 34 slide relative to the respective side walls 16, 18 of the outer container 10 and move with the drawer front section 30 toward the exterior of the container 10. The opposing ears 32, 34 prevent the individual items within the container 10 from spilling out of the container 10 while the drawer 28 is opened.
The foregoing type of paperboard dispenser is manufactured from a unitary, continuous paperboard blank illustrated in FIG. 3. The blank includes four main panels 50, 52, 54, and 56 hingedly connected to each other along parallel vertical score lines. The panel 50 corresponds to the side wall 16, the panel 52 corresponds to the front wall 12, the panel 54 corresponds to the side wall 18, and the panel 56 corresponds to the back wall 14 of the container 10. A top closure panel 58 with a top tuck flap 60 is hingedly connected to the upper horizontal edge of the front panel 52, and a pair of dust flaps 62, 64 are hingedly connected to the upper horizontal edges of the respective side panels 50, 54. The dust flaps 62, 64 and the top closure panel 58 with the top tuck flap 60 form the top wall 20 of the container 10.
An outer bottom closure panel 66 is hingedly connected to the lower horizontal edge of the front panel 52, and an inner bottom closure panel 68 is hingedly connected to the lower horizontal edge of the back panel 56. A pair of bottom closure flaps 70, 72 with respective glue tabs 74, 76 are hingedly connected to the lower horizontal edges of the respective side panels 50, 54. The outer and inner bottom closure panels 66, 68 and the pair of bottom flaps 70, 72 cooperate to form the bottom wall 22 of the container 10.
To form the drawer 28, a plurality of panels extend from the bottom closure panel 66. More specifically, a first panel 78, which has substantially the same shape and size as the bottom closure panel 66, is hingedly connected to the lower horizontal edge of the bottom closure panel 66. In the assembled dispenser in FIGS. 1-2, the first panel 78 is folded 180 degrees about the lower horizontal edge of the bottom closure panel 66 so that the inner surface (i.e., surface not shown in FIG. 3) of the first panel 78 opposes the inner surface of the bottom closure panel 66. A strip panel 80 is hingedly connected to the lower horizontal edge of the first panel 78. In the assembled dispenser, the inner surface of this strip panel 80 is attached to the inner surface of the lower front wall portion 26 below the horizontal score 42.
Referring back to FIG. 3, the lower horizontal edge of the strip panel 80 corresponds to the horizontal score 44, and a drawer panel 82 is hingedly connected to the strip panel 80 along this horizontal score 44. The drawer panel 82 corresponds to the front drawer section 30 so that in the assembled dispenser, the inner surface thereof is attached to the inner surface of the lower front wall portion 26. The ear panels 84, 86 are hingedly connected to opposing vertical edges of the drawer panel 82, and these ear panels 84, 86 correspond to the respective ears 32, 34 of the drawer 28.
A drawback of the foregoing prior art dispenser depicted in FIGS. 1-3 is that it is cost-ineffective and relatively difficult to manufacture. In particular, during the manufacturing process, die-cutting equipment cuts and scores a sheet of paperboard to simultaneously produce a plurality of identical unitary blanks each having the configuration illustrated in FIG. 3. The number of simultaneously-produced blanks is limited by the cutting area employed by the die-cutting equipment. The greater the number of blanks which can be produced in a single die-cutting operation, the greater the throughput of the die-cutting equipment. Since the plurality of panels 78, 80, 82, 84, and 86 for forming the drawer 28 protrude from the remainder of the blank in FIG. 3, the number of blanks which can be simultaneously formed in the cutting area of the die-cutting equipment is restricted. These drawer panels prevent a relatively large number of unitary blanks from being produced in the limited cutting area of the die-cutting equipment, thereby reducing the throughput of the die-cutting equipment.
Furthermore, during the die-cutting operation, the plurality of identical unitary blanks are separated from each other by unused portions of the paperboard sheet from which the blanks are die-cut. The drawer panels have the effect of increasing the separation between the blanks, thereby increasing the amount of unused paperboard. Since the unused paperboard is wasted, the prior art dispenser wastes a relatively large amount of paperboard during its manufacture.
After forming the unitary blank in FIG. 3, the blank is appropriately folded about its score lines and glued to create a finished, glued flat (unerected) dispenser. As part of the folding and gluing operation, the drawer panel 78 is folded 180 degrees about the lower horizontal edge of the bottom closure panel 66, and the inner surface of the drawer panel 78 is attached to the inner surface of the lower front wall portion 26. Due to the configuration of the unitary blank in FIG. 3, the operations for folding and gluing the unitary blank are time-consuming, thereby reducing the throughput of the folding and gluing equipment.
The finished, glued flat dispenser is formed into the prior art dispenser in FIGS. 1 and 2 by hand-erecting the bottom wall 22. Due to the arrangement of the drawer panels in the unitary blank in FIG. 3, the bottom wall 22 must have a hand-erect design. The illustrated bottom wall 22 is formed from the outer and inner bottom closure panels 66, 68 and the pair of bottom flaps 70, 72. Due to the labor involved in assembling the bottom wall 22 by hand, the assembly of the prior art dispenser is expensive and time-consuming. The time-consuming assembly, in turn, results in a lesser volume of production.
Therefore, a need exists for a paperboard dispenser which overcomes the aforementioned drawbacks associated with the prior art dispenser depicted in FIGS. 1-3 and described above.